


Of Plans and Mumbled Babblings

by mab



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Farscape
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-11
Updated: 2011-01-11
Packaged: 2017-10-14 16:04:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/151031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mab/pseuds/mab
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>The only reason the bowtied man was alive was the fact that she could see Crichton’s chest rising and falling with comforting regularity.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Plans and Mumbled Babblings

**Author's Note:**

> A response to the crossovers challenge of two opposite characters meeting.

“That did not go exactly right.” The man wearing the bowtie commented.

Aeryn Sun eyed the unconscious man on the floor. She was used to things not going exactly according to plan. Had been since John Crichton entered her life.

“No. It did not.” She agreed, one eyebrow arching as she looked from Crichton on the other side of the bars to the man standing next to her.

The only reason the bowtied man was alive was the fact that she could see Crichton’s chest rising and falling with comforting regularity. He was breathing and thus alive, so the strange man was still breathing and thus alive.

Aeryn didn’t know why she and Crichton had trusted this strange man. He had been in the cell when they were shoved in, thanks to a rather brainless move by Crichton. Apparently one doesn’t make jokes about having ‘magic space dust’ to trade on a planet that had outlawed anything mind altering.

When Crichton asked the man why he was imprisoned, the man just answered cryptically “Went a bit too far from my usual neighborhoods. Uncharted isn’t the half of it.”

Never one for to take boredom well, Crichton asked Aeryn to play rock, paper, scissors. Before she could refuse, the man leaned forward.

“I love that game.” He declared and nearly made it to ‘shoot’ with Crichton before the three higher beings in the cell processed what that meant.

“Human!” The man said jumping to his feet and pointing at Crichton.

“You’re wearing a suit!” Was John’s response, and Aeryn realized a bit late that she too knew what a suit was thanks to her time on Earth. She should have recognized them. The men in power on Earth seemed to be rather fond of wearing them.

“A human!” The man said again, pulling out a small metal device from his inside pocket. He pointed a glowing green light at John and Aeryn grabbed the man’s wrist. Protective.

The man glanced at her, the only emotion in his eyes a mild form of curiosity, then angled the stick away from John’s face. She let go of his wrist, realizing that if it had been a weapon, the man wouldn’t be in the cell with them. He’d have used it already. He held it close to his own face and seemed to examine the green light itself before looking back at Crichton.

“A human!” He said a third time, this time with a smile. He clapped his hands. “This changes everything. I can make this work.”

Aeryn was used to babble. Crichton was the king of it. At least she thought he was, before this man got started. He bounded (there was no other word for it) around the cell, mumbling to himself, to them, the stick, to something called a ‘Ponds’ that seemed to be talking back though Aeryn couldn’t hear it. He waved his stick at the walls, the ceiling, the floor and finally the bars. More babble about cell bars never going out of style and then he stopped, looking sidelong at John. She saw curiosity in his gaze.

“This should work. You’re human. Should--”

“Stop!” Aeryn snapped, frustrated with this energetic, strange man.

The man looked at her, a different look in his eyes than the one he had just fixed on Crichton. A look of understanding. “This will work. He’s human. I know how his body will respond.” The man assured her.

Only then did she realize her hand was pressed against the small of Crichton’s back. She was not a tech. She did not understand tech things. This man had explained how Crichton was supposed to get to the other side of the bars, but she did not understand it, and that made her anxious. Aeryn needed plans that were clear. Precise plans. Not mumbled babblings of a mad man.

The man opened his mouth to say something more, but it was John that spoke first. “Aeryn, do you have a better idea?”

She did not, so she nodded, still reluctant. As if either of them had a choice because as soon as her hand left John’s back, the man had pressed something to Crichton’s chest and shouted “now!”

Then Crichton was on the other side of the bars, too still other than the rise and fall of his chest.

“At least he’s breathing.” The man commented, as if reading her mind. “No mixed up insidey-parts. Was a bit worried about that.”

“Mixed…up…” Aeryn repeated, in total disbelief. The man was against the cold cell wall, her arm across his chest. “You knew that was a chance?”

She never got to find out what he would have said in response because a groan from Crichton pulled both their attentions to him. He was on his hands and knees, shaking his head as if to clear it. She released the man and crossed over to Crichton, kneeling down across from him, anger with the man forgotten for the moment.

“John, are you all right?”

“How’s your brain feel? Not gooey, I hope?” The man asked right after her, the hopeful lilt to his voice made her turn and glare at him over her shoulder.

“’m good.” Crichton said, standing. “Gooey?” He asked, and she wanted to clout him for the hint of amusement in his eyes. Crichton seemed to be perpetually half amused by the universe. So did the man with them, and she did not like it.

“Right!” Said the man, breaking into her thoughts. “The key is in the box a few feet to your left…”

They made it out. Aeryn wanted to be grateful of that, but the man ruined it as he walked towards a blue box.

“I’ll see you two again.” He promised, then looked back. “Or for the first time. Never quite sure about the order…” He mumbled the last bit before disappearing inside.


End file.
